Sunday 26th July
The build up of cloud during Saturday afternoon limited the rise in temperature that resulted in a peak of 26.5C mid-afternoon at 14.38, being 3.6C above average. It has been an unusual night as normally at this time of year the minimum occurs in the early hours, just before sunrise.The advancing cold front, the first weather front for almost a month, began arriving just before midnight. This resulted in a minimum of 17.1C that was held between 23.38 and 23.51 before the thermometer began to rise again producing a temperature of 18.9C at 08.00. This was the warmest night since 26th June.
An unusual weather feature for this month occurred at around 05.45 Sunday morning when very light rain fell briefly, which was repeated at 07.20. Sadly, on both occasions the precipitation was minimal and brief, which made it not measurable being recorded as a trace. The rain radar showed small areas of thicker cloud drifting in from the west at those times, however within a few minutes the evidence had evaporated due to the very warm and dry ground. The minimal precipitation broke the run of 24 consecutive dry days.
The track of the second cloud area showed the longer and slightly heavier falls over Pewsey and even more so around Amesbury, both to the south of Marlborough, as often happens.
For two days the low pressure system to the north will be in charge of our weather resulting in two cooler days. The barometric pressure at 08.00 read 1005.0mb, which was the lowest pressure recorded all month. However, there is confidence that the anticyclone to the southwest will fight back pushing a ridge over the UK with temperatures climbing above the heatwave threshold again for at least two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, as it feeds hot air from the Continent on a southwesterly or westerly direction. The barometric pressure is already indicating that it has reached its lowest pressure, being steady at the moment, but signs that it is about to begin rising again.